All posts tagged: fashion collection

A lot of elements are important to balance, when making a fashion collection such as fabrics, silhouette, colours, details, styling and so on, and it all starts with an excellent research. A research that feels fresh and is intuitive, while also being rooted in what’s going on in the fashion world around us (read more about the two parts of fashion design here). But, more often than not, students – and sometimes also designers – struggle to understand the importance of Key Shapes and Silhouette. Without a strong and convincing Fashion Collection Silhouette, an otherwise rich and well-crafted collection tends to fall apart. Of course, the Silhouette should reflect the customer, who is more or less fashion-forward. Every fashion brand should know, who their customer is, and then each season they can add more or less trendy shapes to their basic garments, which their brand is known for. So, what makes a ‘strong’ Fashion Collection Silhouette depends on the brand essentially, as most other decisions should often come directly from the brand identity. To give …

During the week, I had a really inspiring conversation with an experienced academic from San Francisco working in the Fashion Design area. Among the various matters we touched upon, an interesting perspective arose on how Fashion Design – and its successful execution – is constituted by two parts. So what is good fashion design? The string of thoughts started with talking about how fashion, as a creative expression like any other art form, is rooted in intuition. Of all the designers, I’ve worked with, and myself included, design almost always originated from a feeling, intuition or conviction of what a certain object should and could look like. I’ve always experienced it as a very natural and almost immediate sense of just having that intuition. It’s hard to put a finger on more precisely what it is, but another word to use would be talent – which is actually equally intangible. This is where you find the true value of creativity, the wauw factor which a piece or collection either has or hasn’t, and the the …

I recently came back from a trip to Kiev and Minsk after giving two lectures about ‘Trend Forecasting’ and ‘Making a Fashion Collection’. For some years, I have been very interested in new fashion cities, as a fresh alternative to ‘The Big 4; London, Paris, Milan and New York’. I’ve been really surprised by all the fresh influence coming from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus and continue to think, it’s really interesting places for new fashion cities with so much possibility, and enjoy seeing new designers slowly carving their way to international fame. Also this time I wasn’t disappointed; in Kiev I met with Daria Shapovalova and her whole team from Kiev Fashion Institute, and we visited upcoming designers as Omelya, Anna October, Anna K., Shushan and Lapti shoes. The next day a workshop and an interested audience, who listened carefully for 7 hours about trends. Not bad for a Saturday with sunshine outside! With Daria Shapovalova in Kiev Passage. Also in Minsk, creativity and fashion are starting to spread like circles in the water. …

Last week, we published an article about new talent fashion competitions (read more about that here). It’s an opportunity that’s hugely popular among young people, as it’s a way to get network, feedback, PR, and if you win; recognition, a prize, and perhaps also mentoring. The people taking home the prizes are the ones with the best collections, but what describes the best collections? Read on about how to win a fashion competition. There is an immense amount of learning to be gained from participating in a fashion competition, and this is regardless of how far you are allowed. Most competitions have requirements, about what work is expected to be handed in, and often the requirements don’t differ majorly. Often there’s a brief, which should be the starting point for your inspiration, and then instructions as to how to present your work, e.g. 2-5 fashion illustrations, technical drawings, material chart, moodboard, a short description of the collection, and your CV. You can use the work later in your portfolio, which should in any case be …

There’s a lot of cool work out there that’s hugely inspiring. New designers use their youth, ambition and talent to invent the fashion of tomorrow, and it feels wonderfully refreshing in a world with conglomerate fashion companies that are so powerful that it seems like there’s no place in the world without a Louis Vuitton store. Don’t get me wrong; I love the big brands – but I also love something more special and original. Wearing something interesting, and something not everyone has, makes you feel very special. Farfetch is an online fashion boutique with a nice variety of new fashion brands, and otherwise these new designers are mostly available in their own mono-brand store in their country of origin together with a few selected multi-brand stores. Therefore you need to be very well informed, when you visit a new place as a tourist, if you’re going to dig out any of the cool designers in some of the concept stores. I came across new designer Irina Krasilnikova during Kiev Fashion Days in Ukraine. There are …

I have sometimes been sitting front row at fashion shows of upcoming designers with the purpose of writing fashion show reviews about the collection for various publications. It’s a different part of the process compared to being ‘work-in-progress’, which is where I’m normally involved either as a fashion tutor or fashion designer. The magic of the big culmination, the fashion show, is breathtaking, and the runway models pass fast one after the other. The attendees are concentrated though still enjoying themselves, as the catwalk models pass by quickly one after the other. Often there will be a short description about the collection and inspiration lying on your seat, and this will prepare you for the show. Having an idea about what you’re going to see together with some key words about the collection are helpful, when the show starts. Here you need to be alert in order to make photos for reference and perhaps writing down a few key words. This is useful for your fashion show reviews, but a part from the technical aspect …

Collecting images for fashion research A good research is crucial for a good fashion collection, as everything starts from here. It’s important you feel strongly motivated with what you choose to work with, as well as choosing something that’s relevant to the consumer, and right for the brand you create for (read more about that here). If you don’t love your research (and I chose the word love on purpose, because you need to love it, not just like it), you will never love your collection, and if you don’t, most likely no one else will. When collecting images for fashion research, the images you put in your research must give you a direction and spark ideas in your mind about: Mood: Always an important and first step. It’s the feel of the collection, and everything springs from here. If you don’t have a clear idea about this, the entire research will be messy. Type of woman (or man): This is what I call a Muse. A Muse is someone who inhabits the imaginary world …

I’ve previously discussed the importance of making a research that you love, as the only starting point for making a strong fashion collection, but other matters are just as important. As a fashion designer, you may have an intuition for style, and be a first mover of trying new and strong ideas, but ultimately your creations will only be successful, if they matter to the consumer. So when is a fashion collection relevant? In this, there’s a lot of marketing and other aspects to discuss, but if we for a moment concentrate on the actual fashion collection and product, here’s some considerations to take into account. What is the secret to choosing something that’s relevant to the consumer? Three things are important here: being aware of what fashion has been like lately, having an intuition of where fashion is heading and understanding your consumer. So, in order to be up-to-date of what happens in the fashion world, it’s important to follow the big brands, read magazines and perhaps follow a few bloggers or other trend-setting …

The Fashion Collection Theme Lately I travelled to Turkey, and as always the travelling sparked my aesthetic side and imagination. As I’ve previously written about, getting out of your normal day-to-day life can be the source of new ideas (read more about that here). I don’t think that the inspiration, I came home with, was particularly Turkish – I entitled it ‘Decorative Arts and Dusty Pink’ – or linked to the actual place, but this doesn’t matter. I saw things there that made sense in my mind with things, I’ve previously seen, and all of a sudden I had a new theme. This, I believe, is very much how the research process works. We see and hear a lot of things, and a lot of it we forget or don’t even notice. Some of it, though, is stored in our minds, and perhaps the situation arises where we pull it out from the storage, perhaps not. Explaining how to research is one of the hardest things to teach students, and I think it’s very individual, …